Flying-machine.



No. 897,738. l Y PATENTED SEPT. l, 1908. W. GORDON.

FLYINGv MACHINE( APPLICATION FILED APR. 28,1903- 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED. sii-Atras PATENT OFFIOE.

WINNE GORDON, OF SHARON SPRINGS, NEW YORK, AssIGNOR OF ONE-HALF fro WORTHIE E OOLYER, OFMARGUsVILLE, NEW YORK.

` FLYING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

lPatented Sept. 1, 1908.-

Application filed April 28, 1906.- Serial No. 314,176.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WINNE GORDON, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Sharon Springs, in the county of Schoharie and State of New York; have invented newn and useful Improvements in -Flying-Ma' chines, of which the following is aspeciiication.

lsai `bars 3 pivoted'at their upper ends to the Thisinvention relates tb improvements( in dying machines, and has for its object to provide a machine of this character of simple construction and adapted to be conveniently controlled, by the aeronaut.. L t,

In the accompanying drawings,-Figure 1v is a side elevation of a flying machine embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section of the same.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates the main frame of the machine., from which is supported a car or supplemental frame 2, supplemental frame comprising hanger frame 1 as indicated at 4 and pivotallyconnected at their lower ends, as at 5,- by a bot-I tom bar 6JJ -Abovethe bars 6 the bars 3 are connected by a link bar 7 which supports an operators seat 8 and a steering post 9. 'lhe frame 2 carries a pivoted, laterally swinging rudder vane 10 mounted upon the lower end of the rear hanger bar 3 and attachedhto thelower end of the steering post Q by suitable connections 11. The post 9 is provided with an operating handle or lever 12 disposed ad- 'acentx the seat 8, and is suitably journaled 1n the link bar 7.

The main frame 1 carries bearings 13 in which is journaled a shaft 14 extending upwardly therefrom and carrying at its lower end a pinion 15. Arran ed to rotate upon the shaft 14 is a second s 'aft 16, which may be hollow or of the open-frametype shown and terminates' at its upper end below theO upper end of the shaft 1.4 and is rovided at its lower end with a pinion 17. he pinions 15 and 17 mesh yvit naleld on the frame 1, and' to the shaft of said gear is keyed or otherwisefixed a sprocket wheel 19. This wheel 19 is connected by a drive chain 2O with a sprocket wheel 21 on a main driving shaft 22 journaled in hevbottom bar 6 of the frame 2. Pedal .cr nks 23 are provided on the shaft 22 to enable said shaft to be driven by-theoperator occupying the seat 8.

i a drive gear 18 jour@ The construction and arrangement of the main driving mechanism is substantially that employedupon bicycles or similar vehicles,

butmotor drive mechanism of any preferredl type may be used in lieu thereof.

Rigi'dly mounted upon the upper ends of the shafts 14 and 16 are propellingaeroplanes 24 and. 2,5,eachcomprising a substantially .circular disk formed of some suitable strong, durable and light material. These `disks are similar in construction, and each is radially slitted at one point and has the free edges of itsslitted portion bent or.curved upwardly and downwardly, respectively, to f provide wings 26 and 27 and an intervening slot or passage' 28, the free 'ends of the wings being connectedfby a brace or'conneoting piece 29.

in overlyin relation, and said wings are shown bent or curved so as to form vanes to act upon the a1rto secure a hftlng motlon,

counteracted by the other, so that they will rconjointly operate toA lift the machine.

When the shafts stand vertically and the aeroplanes are horizontally disposed, rotation of said vanes will cause them to act upon the air in such manner as to propel.the machine'directly upward, and to secure a sus--l pending and forward propelling action the vanes are forwardly inclined to'agreater or less extent, thels eed of forward projection of the machine belng dependent upon the eX- tent of inclination of the planes andtheir speed of rotation.

ency to turning effect produced by each is Y The edges of the wings 26 and 27 lap slightly the slofI 28 providing l'apassage to permit of i In order to tilt or incline the aeroplanes` means are provided to effect this by shifting the center of gravity of the machine. To

this end a shifting lever 30 is pivoted to uth/'105l link bar 7 and provided at one ,end with al handle `31 disposed in convenient juxtaposition to the operators seat. The other end of the lever Qis connected by a link 32 with the bottom bar 6. By throwin this lever backwardly, the links 6 and 7 wi be moved in opposite directions and the frame2 shifted forwardly so\as. t throw the weight of the operator and gearing in front ofthe 'center of gravity ofl the machine. Hence the-frame as a whole will be caused to tilt downwardly and fdrwardly to a greater or lessextent or angle according -to the `extent of movement of `thele'ver 30; whereby the aeroplanes are caused to dip orassume' an angular position, so that they will-act upon the'air in such manner asto impart afforward movement to the machine, the latterbeing steeredor guided by means of the rudder vane 10. By

shifting the vweight of the o erator' to 'a greater or less extent in front o the centerof.

gravity, thus varying the inclination ofthe aeroplanes, the machine will be) propelled forward with a greater or less speed, dependent upon the degree of'inclination and their rapidity of rotation. A reverse motion of `the lever will restore theparts to normal position, "in which the aeroplanes will rotate in a horizontalv plane and immediately above, the center line of the machine, whereby they will operate to lift and suspend the machine in the air. By simply ,bringing kthe aeroplanes back to normal position in the manner described and progressively decreasing `the speedof rotation thereof, the operator maycause the machine to descend at any desired rate of speed. Locking means. of any preferred v character may be employed to hold-,the lever 3() in'fixedgrelation to the link bar 7. 'i'

chine.-

for shifting said frame to c Having thus described the invention, what is claimed asnew, is f 1. A iying'machine comprising a main frame, oppositely rotating ropellers carried thereby, va supplemental rame suspended from the main frame, said supplemental frame comprising hangers pivotal y connected with the main frame, a bottom bar pivotally connected withl the hangers,` and a link joining the hangers above the bottom bar, drive. gearing supported by the main and supplemental framesfor driving the propellers, and adjusting means connected with then bottom bar and link of the supplemental frame for shifting the'portions ofvsaid frame .l

to change the center of gravity of the ma- 2. A flying machineembodying a main 554 frame, propellers carried thereby, a supplemental frame suspended from the main:

frame, said sup hangers pivota y connected with thermain frame', a bottom bar pivotally connected with the hangers, and a link joining the,

lemental lframe comprising 

